Bernie Sanders

Venezuela is Feeling the “Bern”

Published by Papa Giorgio

I love Gay Patriot’s clear take on things. I hope all my conservative evangelical readers head over to support such clear thinking and thank him:

In 1999, Venezuela was taken over by Socialist who promised that he would punish big corporations and redistribute wealth to “the people” to provide health care, education, infrastructure, and even out income inequality. (Sound familiar?) The American Left cheered. Celebrities like Sean Penn and Danny Glover praised his Democratic Socialist economic measures. Chavez systematically nationalized the oil, banking, agricultural, food distribution, telecommunications, and power industries in Venezuela; because running them as social democratic communes would eliminate “greed” and give the people lower cost goods and services. The American Left praised him for “democratizing” the Venezuelan economy. When Chavez shut down opposition TV, radio, and newspapers the American Left defended it as necessary to protect the Revolution.

The American Left likes to pretend now that Venezuela isn’t a real example of Social Democracy; but up until the economy collapsed (as every sensible person knew it would) they were Chavez’s biggest cheerleaders, as the links above (or any Google search) shows.

When Hugo Chavez died, he left behind a personal fortune of nearly $4 Billion. Just sayin’

Anyway, the real legacy of Hugo Chavez is that the country with the second largest oil reserves in the Western Hemisphere can’t even keep the lights on.  But, Hey, it’s not their fault, you guys.

  • (Venezuelan President) Maduro blames the collapse on an “economic war” by capitalists.

Actually, it’s the economic war *on* capitalists that caused your problems, comrade….

(click over to sea what Maduro is legislating now)

Radical Leftists Shutting Down Free Speech (Rebel Pundit)

Published by Papa Giorgio

Here is the appearance of the Rebel Pundit guys on Hannity (Gateway Pundit h/t):

  • Tonight Andrew and Jeremy went on Hannity to describe the scene. It’s important to remember that this violence did not start with Trump. The left has been promoting violence against their opposition and the American public for decades.

Here is the entire video from The Rebel Pundit:

Chess Master Garry Kasparov on Bernie Sanders

Published by Papa Giorgio

Front Page Magazine has some great insights by ex-soviet and chess master, Garry Kasparov:

Chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov lived in the USSR and he is not feeling the bern.

I’m enjoying the irony of American Sanders supporters lecturing me, a former Soviet citizen, on the glories of Socialism and what it really means! Socialism sounds great in speech soundbites and on Facebook, but please keep it there. In practice, it corrodes not only the economy but the human spirit itself, and the ambition and achievement that made modern capitalism possible and brought billions of people out of poverty. Talking about Socialism is a huge luxury, a luxury that was paid for by the successes of capitalism. Income inequality is a huge problem, absolutely. But the idea that the solution is more government, more regulation, more debt, and less risk is dangerously absurd.

[….]

That reminds me of that Pavlov said about Communism as an experiment. Sure, let’s experiment with Socialism some more until everyone is poor or dead.

American Thinker continues the theme via Kasparov:Sanders Dos XX

Perhaps in response to those who claim that Sanders is really more about Scandinavian-style socialism than the actual ownership of all means of production by the state, Kasparov wrote:

Yes, please take Scandinavia as an example! Implementing some socialistic elements AFTER becoming a wealthy capitalist economy only works as long as you don’t choke off what made you wealthy to begin with in the process. Again, it’s a luxury item that shouldn’t be confused with what is really doing the work, as many do. And do not forget that nearly all of the countless 20th-century innovations and industries that made the rest of the developed world so efficient and comfortable came from America, and it wasn’t a coincidence. As long as Europe had America taking risks, investing ambitiously, and yes, being “inequal,” it had the luxury of benefiting from the results without making the same sacrifices. Who will be America’s America?

Exactly so.  And I would add that Sweden has moved away from high taxes and government domination because socialism has led to stagnation and declining standing in the world. 

Teaching Sandernistas a Marxist Lesson (Redistribution)

Published by Papa Giorgio

Making the Socialist Grade: Teaching Sandernistas a Marxist Lesson ~ By Mark Pastin

…Consider Arizona State University, a school not exactly known for campus radicalism. When I was teaching there in the 1980s, I would often start a new semester by asking the class who among them considered themselves to be socialists. The hands would go up—including a majority in many cases. In 20 years of teaching, whether at Indiana, Michigan, or ASU, this never changed.

When I asked my students what they thought socialism meant, they would generally recite some version of the Marxist chestnut “from each according to ability and to each according to need.” Many said that they were driven to socialism by the inequities of capitalism—and there were few on the faculty to disabuse them of the notion…

[….]

…When the majority of a class would declare themselves to be socialist, I would offer to run the class along socialist principles, such as the mandate to take from the able and give to the needy. Specifically, I offered to grade the class on a sort of reverse-curve: Those with the highest GPAs would receive the lowest grades and those with the lowest GPAs would be given the highest grades. This would be one small step to level the playing field for those less endowed with academic ability or motivation. After all, those with less academic ability or motivation were surely the victims of a rigged system in which social factors including prior education and income inequality disadvantaged the many in favor of the privileged few.

This socialist grading scheme was invariably met with outrage, especially, if unsurprisingly, among high-performing students (who made up a disproportionate number of the self-declared socialists). Some would remind me that some things are simply meant to be a matter of merit. And I heard every argument imaginable for allowing fair competition to determine outcomes. Grades, it turned out, were a currency college kids could understand.

You get the same response among students if you offer them the prospect of taking the money that subsidizes their education and using it to feed people in developing nations. Surely the potential deprivation of the students is insignificant compared with that of the individuals to be fed. Students are quick to point out that things don’t work that way, which is true, but contrary to their socialist infatuation.

Students are attracted to socialism because they have no skin in the game. To some extent, the same applies to other young people who do not yet have a significant stake in the system. Capitalist beliefs quickly come to the surface when the young are no longer playing with funny money….

Sheperd Fairey ~ The Iconographer of Choice for Socialists

Published by Papa Giorgio

~ INSIDE EVERY LIBERAL IS A TOTALITARIAN SCREAMING TO GET OUT ~

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Gay Patriot does an excellent job in calling out the fascination of the extremist left’s enchantment with totalitarian “art.”

Shepard Fairey continues to establish himself as the Valentina Kulagina of American Socialism, coming with new iconography for the Bernie Sanders campaign.

Socialists, for some reason, really love this kind of stuff, the mating of terrible ideas with stunning graphic design.

The People’s Cube mock’s it by putting it side-by-side for comparison:

…Enter Shepard Fairey, the favorite visual agitator and propagandist of the American Left. We don’t think he considers himself a fascist at all. It’s just that when he tries to think of the coolest possible visual for a socialist candidate like Bernie Sanders, he comes up with a design that not only screams “national socialism” due to its style and execution, but directly imitates the elements and composition of Nazi paraphernalia…

nazis-for-bernie-composit

The Daily Caller will finish off this post with some points of interest:

Shepard Fairey, the “artist” who “created” that iconic image, is back. And you’ll never guess which presidential candidate he’s supporting this time!

Fairey says he’s “tired of portraits” and wants to focus on “principles, not personalities.” This is a tacit admission that he was a credulous dupe back in ’08, and he played a big role in manufacturing Obama’s fraudulent cult of personality. And if Fairey is “tired of portraits,” that might be because he stole a photo of Obama from the Associated Press to make the “HOPE” poster, then lied about it during the huge legal mess, and his own lawyers quit, and it was a whole big thing.

But now, for the low, low price of $30, you can own another piece of American history that was designed by the “HOPE” dope himself…

For real political art, see: http://unsavoryagents.com/

Libertarian Republican’s Short Critique On 1985 Bernie Sanders

Published by Papa Giorgio

Libertarian Republican’s Post:

1:20 Mark: During the past 150 years (relative to the 1980s), the U.S. position was that Latin America should be a colony of the United States – an amazing reading of the Monroe Doctrine, but you have to hand it to Marxist revisionists, they sure are imaginative. We told the Europeans to not attempt to re-colonize Latin America so we would be able to do colonize Latin America.

2:00 Mark: During the past 30 years (again relative to the 1980s), the U.S. has overthrown a dozen or so governments in Latin America – more left-wing revisionism. Their religious belief is that socialism works, so the fact that populist left-wing governments of Latin America failed is proof that an outside power caused them to fail. Until recently, Latin America was characterized by alternating right-wing dictatorships and populist leftwing governments (except for Argentina, which was both). Only recently has most of Latin America embraced democratic government with dominant center-right and center-right parties, undergirded by a broad middle class.

3:20 Mark: U.S. policy toward Latin America has been based on the presumption that we can destroy them anytime we wanted. Then why didn’t we? Why did we not destroy Mexico following the ascension of revolutionary socialists early during the 20th century? Why did we not destroy Cuba under the military dictator Battista or under the communist dictator Castro?

4:20 Mark: Salvador Allende was “gaining in strength” in Chile in 1973, the time of the military coup. First, this is an admission that Allende, a revolutionary socialist, only had minority support and gained power because of a split of the non-Marxist vote. Second, it is another instance where the collapse of a country under revolutionary socialism is the proof that an outside power was at work because of dogmatic belief in socialism.

We will now list the revolutionary socialist governments of Latin America and whether they are democratic or not: Cuba – a dictatorship; Venezuela – in 2009, term limits on the Presidency were lifted allowing Hugo Chavez to effectively become President-for-life; Nicaragua – in 2014, term limits on the Presidency were lifted allowing Daniel Ortega to effectively become President-for-life; Bolivia and Ecuador – in 2015, term limits on the Presidency were left allowing Evo Morales and Rafael Correa to effectively become Presidents-for-life. A 100 percent track record.

Revolutionary socialism is not democratic. It proclaims itself to be the vanguard of the working class. Its goal is to fundamentally transform society, weaning the population of egoism and replacing egoism with selfless devotion to the state. To gain power, revolutionary socialists may offer free stuff or appeal to voters based on race and gender. But, once power is gained, revolutionary socialism turns into a cult of personality.